Fall Equinox, the season of balance. The holding of opposites between the illuminated light and the dark night. It’s a season of sustaining the awareness that light and dark are needed for our inner balance as we move away from the sun in our western hemisphere. Hard to believe summer is coming to a close, and Labor Day once again reminds of us of our outer duties returning to school or work. And for many adventures that present new frontiers of acceptance.

As for me, when this newsletter comes out, I would have dropped my daughter off for her freshman year at college and returned home to an emptier house. As I write this, I am sitting with the full awareness that the energy will be different, and I, too, will be venturing into a new beginning. Seasons change, life goes forward, and the beauty of living is to appreciate it all as one huge wonderful ride!

So I’m taking this opportunity to reflect on how sweet the journey has been, be it way too fast. I yearn to slow down and truly appreciate the hours spent being her mom. Yes, I can miss her. I know that parenting is never over; it just shifts. I am willing to parent with a long extension cord, and not a smothering grip, as I transition into my new role as parent to an adult. When do we become an adult? I sometimes question myself ever reaching that milestone even as my chronological age is given the title of senior citizen!

I’ll keep questioning my learned habits and patterns, stay open to possibility that I’m a work in progress, and know that life is always presenting new opportunities to learn and thrive. I will embrace change as a gift of staying open to a new season.

When we reach an ending, we must be able to accept the gift of grieving. The intellect fights it but the soul demands it. Personally, I know I will moan, but that primal sound is my ability to absorb the opposite which is my joy. The joy of loving so deeply. The wonder of letting go and allowing the new to come in. What is being presented now? What awaits?

Our Global Yoga Therapy Day back on August 14 was a huge success! Over 25 students came in throughout the day. Sharing individually with a private therapist, they each received a personal practice and were able to feel connected in a heartfelt experience. The day was filled with hope as we shared a collective space for healing.

By offering the various tools of yoga, we find new ways to return to a state of balance as we go deeper into the more refined ways to calm the nervous system, and appreciate the ability to focus the thoughts. This is our gateway for the tools of meditation.

Like all good habits, meditation requires regular effort to make it a part of a healthy lifestyle:

• the ability to live life with greater creativity and increasing patience and tolerance

• the ability to reduce our inner frustrations and negative emotions as we gain new perspectives on stressful situations.

Please continue to join our year long commitment to meditating on the heart by sharing with me on Monday evenings as we practice together. Anyone can join as I guide a practice at 7:30 in the small room. My commitment is to stay balanced and go into the fall season with light and hope and lots of hugs.

And remember that all our wonderful teachers offer their profound wisdom as they guide you into a practice, by sharing the teachings that help cultivate and inspire living in our vibrant, youthful enthusiaam for the path unknown.

Be willing to be present to what is being going on in the NOW as we embrace this new season in all it’s glory of endings and beginnings. My favorite poet, David Whyte, expresses it beautifully, “inside everyone is a great shout of joy waiting to be born.”

Blessings,

LJ